Should I change my diet now I'm running further?

C

cusimar9

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The last month or two I've really stepped up my running/gym and I've changed my diet quite a bit. Its all going very well and I'm really enjoying everything, and eating healthy really isn't as hard as I thought. I'm losing weight without losing muscle, so all is well.

My running is now up to about 8 miles, with 2 x 5.6m runs elsewhere in the week (and gym the rest of the time)

I ran yesterday after not really having eaten a lot (just a good breakfast) and I've just worked out I probably used up about 1100 calories while running.

My question is should I try and eat differently when I know I'm going to be doing a longer run? Maybe plenty of complex carbs the night before or during the day of the run?
 
Carbo load 2 days before your long runs, just as you would do for a long race :D
 
cusimar9 said:
My question is should I try and eat differently when I know I'm going to be doing a longer run? Maybe plenty of complex carbs the night before or during the day of the run?
Click to expand...

The quesiton is really about performance... to get a performance gain... um... people don't carbo load for training... so carbo loading for regular training would really just be gluttonous...

If you are running less than 10 miles it probably doesn't matter as long as you are not in a fasted state...

"The average male athlete can store about 1,500 to 1,900 kilocalories (kcal) of carbohydrate: 60-80 kcal in the blood, 360-440 kcal in the liver and 1,300 to 1,400 kcal in the muscles. " http://www.bodyandfitness.com/Information/Fitness/carb1.htm

So if you are running 8 miles... I'm not sure it makes much of a difference as long as you realize that when you run 8 miles you are burning about an extra 800 calories... so you probably need to eat a bit more that day...


http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/HQ/00385.html


Of course I could be completely wrong...
 
That's handy to know what to do prior to a big event, thanks :)

And I guess for my longer runs, just make sure I eat well leading up to it...
 
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